Brand strategy is part of a business plan that outlines how the company will build rapport and favorability within the market. The goal of a brand strategy is to become memorable in the eyes of the consumer so that they decide to patronize your business over the competition. (Taken from Hubspot.)

What happens when a company has an unclear brand strategy?

Confusing brand message. With a lack of brand strategy, the story of what makes your business unique can be much more difficult to communicate. You end up with messaging that is generic and vague — like every other brand.
The ripple effect: your audience won't trust your brand, due to the lack of consistency and clear message. Staying true to your brand personality and sticking to your values will show the integrity of your brand. If your messaging says one thing, but your customers experience something else, this might insinuate a non-trustworthy message.

How does a strong brand strategy impact the business?

Understanding the value of your brand is the number one most critical part of building a relentlessly relevant, successful brand. Your brand vision needs to be consistently communicated within your company as well as to your audience.

Clarity within your company.

Having clarity within your company means that your team understands your mission and vision. With clear strategy, people making up an organization can become ambassadors through all their social "touch points."

Familiarity in your customer's mind.

The more synchronized and streamlined your brand is, the easier it is for your customer to remember you. To establish brand familiarity, companies shouldn't feel the need to stay in the line of traditional approaches or marketing norms.

What can a business owner do when identifying good brand strategy?

A good brand strategy has two components. One is a clear message, and the other is clear principles.

Public Relations

Maintain a positive reputation of the brand and a strategic relationship with the public, prospective customers, partners, investors, employees and other stakeholders.

Brand Communications

A combination of activities such as advertising, social media and reviews that are used to communicate with customers.

Brand Marketing

The process of establishing and growing a relationship between a brand and consumers. Rather than highlighting an individual product, brand marketing promotes the entirety of the brand.

Employer Branding

Branding and marketing the entirety of the employment experience — an employer's reputation as a place to work.

Brand Identity

The visible elements of a brand, such as color, design, and logo. Consistent marketing and messaging lead to consistent brand identity and, therefore, consistent sales.

What do you need to recognize a good brand strategy?

Target Audience Understanding — the more knowledge you have about your audience the more possibilities you get to optimize your products.
Strong UVP (Unique Value Proposition) — when you make a clear message that lets the customer see the extra benefit in your products, you're likely to win their attention.
Brand's Mission Over Temporary Profit — to take your brand to the next level, you need a serious mission and objective.

In Summary

For a multinational corporation: Having a claimed color as your brand's identity would save you millions of dollars, by not going back and forth between branding agencies choosing which one should be your identity.

In an established company without good brand strategy: Sometimes the deeper you go, you understand that people no longer buy your product from your benefit. They buy your products because it makes them feel a certain emotion, like they belong to a certain tribe — if they're not clear about how they feel about making that purchasing decision, it's your branding team's job to connect them and reach them beyond rationale.

Steps to work on your brand strategy:

Work on your why, and cultivate it within your team, your culture, your company.
Do an audit of your target market — how are they currently feeling about your business, what do they know about you, what is the best thing about your company, and what are the areas of improvement. Then audit your brand. Always put your customer first.
Test it out. "A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product or a service" — Marty Neumeier. Unless it's out there and being tested regularly with the right metrics, your brand will never know what makes your customer want you.

Check out why companies hire branding agencies here.